Guy On The Yankees Not Named Alex Rodriguez Comes Clean About Steroid Use

Eric Goldschein

12:21 pm, October 10th, 2013

Remember when 13 MLB players not named Alex Rodriguez were suspended this year for taking performance-enhancing drugs? Everyone not named Alex Rodriguez accepted their suspensions without argument or appeal or suing the MLB, which throws Rodriguez’s claims that he’s innocent of the charges into question (like everything else he says and does). One guy in particular, Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli, spoke for the first time about his suspension yesterday, and his honesty is a stark contrast to… whatever A-Rod has going on nowadays.

Making his first extensive comments since the suspension, Cervelli said in an interview with Newsday that going to the clinic in 2011 was his mistake, resulting in consequences he has to own.

“I talked to my agents, my lawyers and that’s what I said,” Cervelli said. “Let’s stand up and that’s it. I don’t want to keep this soap opera going.”

Cervelli, whose career has been beset by injuries, said his reason for involving himself with the clinic was simple. Biogenesis offered the possibility of “a quick fix,” he said, a faster return from a broken left foot suffered in March 2011 when he was battling for a backup job.

“I felt so many times in my career a little scared I’m going to lose my job,” said Cervelli, who finally achieved what he called his “dream” of being the starting catcher of the Yankees this spring. “Every year I have to go to spring training and fight for a job.”

“Sometimes you listen to people who have nothing to lose; that’s dangerous,” he said. “When you’re desperate or anxious or scared, that’s when you have to step back, slow down and think about what can happen in the future with your actions in the present.”

To be fair, Cervelli originally lied about his involvement with Biogenesis before getting caught and coming clean, but he’s hardly the first. And his reason for cheating — wanting to keep his job — is much different than A-Rod’s (alleged) reason, which is presumably to become known as the greatest baseball player ever. A-Rod already had the big contracts and the stats, and that’s what he’s fighting to keep with his appeal and lawsuit. Cervelli just wants another shot in the big leagues. I guess that’s why one person owned up to his mistakes and the other one… is taking a different path.